Application of Satellite Remote Sensing Technology in Earth Surveying

Earth is our home, which we rely on for survival. It contains abundant mineral resources such as oil, coal, natural gas, iron, copper, gold, nickel, and others that humans need. At the same time, due to active crustal movements, natural disasters frequently occur around the world. Therefore, earth surveying is a focal point and key area of geological work in contemporary times. Satellite remote sensing technology, with its intuitive, accurate, dynamic, comprehensive, and multi-level advantages, plays an important role in earth surveying.

Remote sensing can be simply understood as "remote perception". Depending on the platform of the remote sensing sensor, it can be divided into satellite remote sensing, aerial remote sensing, etc. Generally, satellite remote sensing technology uses a "top-down perspective" to observe the ground, obtaining spectral imaging information far beyond what the human eye can see through various sensors. Currently, satellite remote sensing has formed a global earth observation system that combines high, medium, and low orbits, coordinates large, medium, and small satellites, and complements high, medium, and low resolution, facilitating comprehensive Earth surveying.

Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing Technology in Earth Surveying

Satellite remote sensing technology is most widely used in earth surveying for terrain and landform surveys as well as environmental monitoring.

Terrain and Landform Surveys

In terrain and landform surveys, satellite remote sensing technology can detect ground objects and transmit remote sensing images and data back to the ground. By interpreting the remote sensing images and data, people can understand the geological environment of a region and infer whether there are undeveloped mineral resources. Additionally, utilizing satellite remote sensing technology, people can acquire elevation data for an area to generate a digital elevation model (DEM—a dataset of planar coordinates and elevation values within a specific range) to describe the spatial distribution of the terrain and create 3D models of landforms.

Environmental Monitoring

Satellite remote sensing technology in environmental monitoring can be used to detect issues such as environmental pollution, ecological damage, and biodiversity loss. It can acquire information on the distribution of relevant pollutants in the atmosphere, surface water, soil, etc. For example, it can observe the distribution, diffusion, and evolution process of atmospheric pollutants using satellite remote sensing technology. It can also use remote sensing data with different spatial resolutions to obtain change trends in environmental elements such as grasslands, wetlands, lakes, and glaciers, and analyze environmental evolution patterns. In general, satellite remote sensing technology, as a primary means of "air-space-ground" integrated investigation, has played a very important role in environmental monitoring.

Development of Satellite Remote Sensing Technology in Earth Surveying

With the rapid development of high-tech fields in computer science, satellite remote sensing technology is also continuously advancing. In the future, satellite remote sensing technology will provide image data with higher spatial and temporal resolution, exploring the potential of high-resolution data in various geosurvey applications. Hyperspectral remote sensing technology is a typical example, capable of synchronously acquiring radiation information, spectral information, and ground object spatial information using imaging spectrometers and nanoscale spectral resolution. Therefore, it can reveal a wealth of physical and chemical information about a particular location.

In addition, the currently popular artificial intelligence technology can also help satellite remote sensing technology continuously provide positive contributions to earth surveying. By conducting in-depth research and transformation of remote sensing technology from the perspectives of data, algorithms, and computing power, a deep-intelligent remote sensing system based on cloud computing and big data can be formed. For instance, image processing methods based on deep learning and other AI technologies can be developed to enhance the recognition and classification accuracy of remote sensing images, realizing the rapid processing of massive data.

Satellite remote sensing technology, as an important method for earth surveying, provides strong support for the rapid exploration of resources and energy, environmental monitoring, and natural disaster early warning. It is an economically feasible technical method. In the future, efforts should be continued to accelerate the integration of satellite remote sensing technology with other advanced technologies, contributing to the development of earth sciences.